Mist Requiem
by riyangendut
Summary: It's easy to blame the demon kings, to defeat them and kill them, to consign all our sins on them. To save and forgive them, however, require another level of strength entirely. Loosely connected one-shots collection.
1. Chapter 1

**So, I wrote something. This story revolves around the 'farewell', separation of two souls bound together by either love or hate, although not as grim as its tittle. At least I think so. No promise. *sigh***

 **I'll try to keep the casualties at minimum.**

* * *

There aren't many people that could force Hikigaya Hachiman to leave his warm bed in Sunday morning, and naturally, Yukinoshita Haruno isn't in that list. In fact, even if people in that list forced him, he would probably try with all his might to avoid meeting with the scion of Yukinoshita family.

Of course, there are ways around this, and Yukinoshita Haruno is nothing if not intelligent, sly, and manipulative.

A harsh ringtone broke through the solemn morning in the Hikigaya household. Hachiman lazily grabbed his phone to look at the insolent mortals who had interrupted his ritual to suppress the ancient deity locked under his bed.

To say he was surprised was the understatement of the century.

The screen spelled a name he thought he would never see in his screen, one of not many people that he wouldn't mind dragging him even to the depth of hell itself and back. The screen showed a series of numbers that belonged to none other than the divine avatara descended to the Earth, Totsuka Saika himself.

 _"Ah, hello, Hachiman."_

"Yes, your wish is my command, Totsuka."

 _"Uh, pardon?"_

"Don't mind it. Can I help you with anything?"

 _"Yeah, actually I need you to meet me at the train station..."_

"I'll be there right away." Hachiman didn't let him finish his sentence, which proves to be his own undoing.

* * *

"I thought _you_ needed me." Hachiman stood dejectedly in front of a pair of human he never thought could be together in the same place.

Namely, the divine Totsuka Saika and the demonic mastermind Yukinoshita Haruno.

"I'm sorry, Hachiman, b-but Yukinoshita-san asked me..." his voice was almost inaudible as Totsuka Saika tried to avoid Hachiman's disappointed glare.

"She _intimidated_ you." Hachiman corrected.

"I prefer _persuaded._ " Haruno chimed in with her cheerful tone. "As lethargic as always, Hikigaya-kun. I'm afraid I need your help with..." She gestured to two suitcase lying around her feet.

 _Beautiful legs._ Hikigaya thought. _Not as beautiful as- who is that girl with a name like a motorcycle brand again?- but beautiful nonetheless._

"Earth to Hikigaya-kun, are you there?" Haruno waved her hand in front of his eyes. "I'll let you to touch them later, but we need to catch a train."

"Seriously?!"

He was too excited to notice the mischievous grin adorning Haruno's face.

* * *

When Haruno said 'touch', Hachiman was _not_ thinking about the suitcase weighing several ton that he currently nursing in their journey to Tokyo.

"Where are we going anyway?" He carefully breached the blissful silence.

"The airport. I'm leaving Japan." She answered somewhat wistfully, her words caught Hachiman's attention.

"To where? For how long?" She chuckled at his enthusiastic question.

"You sound awfully happy that I'll be away."

"Can't deny that." He dropped his sight to the suitcase between his legs. "Sorry."

"No, no. That kind of Hikigaya-kun is cute."

The silence continued for several minutes.

"I'm going to take a flight to Los Angeles, then hop on another to San Francisco."

"You could've said America." Hachiman muttered. If Haruno heard him, she was ignoring it.

"How long would you stay there?"

"I don't know. Three, maybe four years? Post graduate study could often unpredictable."

The train apathetically zoomed through ever-changing landscape, blue green and silver blurred through the window.

"Why don't you bring Yukinoshita- your sister, I mean, to accompany you?" Hachiman raised his head to meet Haruno's amethyst eyes, who turned her face to the window "I'm sure she'll be as happy as I am."

"I don't know about that. I'm essentially running away from the responsibility of a Yukinoshita. Besides..." Their eyes met "It's more romantic if a man escorted me, right?"

Hachiman involuntarily blushed.

"I wouldn't know." This time, he was the one who averted his gaze towards the window.

"How boring..."

* * *

"...We still have a full hour before designated departure time..." Hachiman sighed. _Well, at least I'm freed from that demonic suitcase. What's in it anyway? Cannonballs? Handcuffs?_

"What, don't you want to spend some time with this beautiful Onee-san?"

"I'm more into Imouto type, thank you very much."

"Hey, Hikigaya-kun." Haruno latched her arm into Hachiman's "Would you mind if I call you Hachiman?"

"I would, but I'm sure you'll ignore it." Haruno pouted.

"I won't do anything you don't want, you know?"

"My past involvement with you proved otherwise." Haruno chuckled, her body pressing into Hachiman's.

His heart rate increased.

"Hachiman." His heart jumped.

"What is it?"

"I'm thinking about leaving Japan forever."

"What? Why?"

"You sound less happy to hear that compared to the first time I told you I'm leaving Japan."

"Well, there's the matter of your sister and family business that you're supposed to inherit..."

"I wonder how Yukino-chan actually thinks about me." Haruno's voice turned into a painful one. "Do you think she hates me?"

"I-I don't know. Hell if I know."

"What about you, Hachiman?"

"What about me?"

"Do you hate me?" Hachiman observed the elder woman's face. She is certainly beautiful, masking a cold heart with warm smile and cheerful voice, but he had never heard her speaking with her false cheerfulness down.

"I...yes, I hate you."

Haruno clenched her fingers around Hachiman's arm.

"That hurts." She muttered. "It's almost as if I could still be wounded by mere words." Had she not pressed her body (and by extension, her chest) to Hachiman's arm, he wouldn't have heard her.

 _That's nonsense. No one could be immune to heartbreak, not even a Yukinoshita. One might mask it, hide it, laugh it, try to forget it, drown it in empty routines, but the wound would still be there, bleeding, spreading pain. A physical wound might be healed, but a scar in a heart would make a rift that would never heal._

Naturally, he didn't say anything.

"You know how many I've considered committing suicide?" She casually asked, as if asking a close friend about a nearby cafe special discount. "Thirty seven, with seventeen attempts to realize it."

 _She never had anyone. Always alone, with only her mask as company. I wonder..._

"How... I want to ask how could you stayed alive for this long, but..."

"I tried. I tried to end everything. But my life, rather, the image of 'Yukinoshita Haruno' is too precious to be buried with my corpse." She suddenly let go of Hachiman's arm.

"You see why I didn't ask Yukino-chan to escort me?" A drop of tears hanging in the edge of her eyes. "She shouldn't see me like this; weak and fragile like a glass sculpture. For her I must be a perfect villain, an enemy she admires as much as she wishes to conquer." She wiped the edge of her eyes with her sleeve.

"For her, for my family, for you. There was never Yukinoshita Haruno the _human,_ the girl, only Yukinoshita Haruno the perfect mastermind, both a puppet and a puppeteer."

 _It's suffocating. I've hated her from the first time we met, why should I stop now? Why this hatred suddenly evaporated just because she showed me that deep inside, she is still human? Let her leave, for her own sake. For Yukinoshita's sake. Free the two of them._

Against all logic and reason deep within his mind, Hachiman wrapped his arm around Haruno's shoulder.

"I..." He took a deep breath. "I'm here. I'll wait for you. So don't give up."

For the first time in her life, Yukinoshita Haruno cried on someone's arm.

* * *

"No kiss for me?"

They were still holding each other's hand fifteen minutes before departure.

"W-what are you talking about?"

"Well, it's kind of the tradition, right? A man kissed his woman before they got separated for god-knows how long..."

"Don't push your luck, Haruno. I still hate you. And you're _not_ my woman."

"Even after all those words about waiting for me? I thought we share something between us..."

"Maybe you should return here alive first, and _then_ we could talk."

"It's a deal, then."

For the first time, the two of them smiled towards each other.

* * *

"I hate you." Hachiman plainly said to the person on the other side of the phone, the midnight after he escorted Haruno to the airport.

The voice on his phone laughed.

 _"I'm sorry, time zone difference and everything."_

"You could just send me a text."

 _"Eeh, but I miss your voice already..."_

"I'm hanging up."

 _"Wait!" Click._

Hachiman crashed his face to his pillow, hiding his grin and blushing face.

* * *

 **Well, I kept my promise, no Oregairu characters were harmed in the making of this fanfiction...**

 **That's a 8manxHaruno fanfiction for a change! Do you like it?**

 **Critics and Reviews are always appreciated. riyangendut out.**


	2. Misfired Destiny

**So, I wrote some moar thing! And it's about Romance! Ah, to be young, to arrogantly think that they're able to shape their own fate... *sigh* I sound like an old man even though I've just barely graduated from teenage myself... Anyway! Enjoy this fanfiction.**

 **This chapter is huge… for my standard anyway. It spanned more than 2700 words. My average word counts in comparison are about 1200 words.**

* * *

Hikigaya Hachiman once used his free time to think about the most effective way to bring a massive luggage through the hallway of Sobu High that while not really narrow, wasn't exactly spacious either. His calculation involved the space required to let Zaimokuza pass through undisturbed while he carried an item larger than himself, and he added it into his collection of 108 loner skill.

What he never imagined however, the day that that skill would see practical use.

* * *

"Two question, Hikigaya." Hiratsuka-sensei stopped him in front of the counseling room, visibly annoyed that her smoking session was cut short by his arrival.

"Please make it quick, sensei. It might not look like it, but this thing is heavy."

"Ah, you could set that down." Hachiman gently lowered the item he was holding to the floor. "First question. Why are you carrying a huge bouquet of flower?"

The bouquet was pretty impressive; it stood more than half as tall as Hachiman himself. Hachiman wasn't really knowledgeable about flowers, but he could at least recognize Hyacinth, Lilly, and Rose amidst the collection of flowers.

"The guy that delivered it mistook me for employee and dumped it to my hands." He made an exaggerated sigh. Hiratsuka-sensei wasn't impressed, but nodded nevertheless.

"Second question. Why did you dump it in front of my room?"

"I believe you're the only Hiratsuka in this school." He gestured to the card slipped between the flowers. "So naturally I brought it to you... Sensei? Hiratsuka-sensei?" But she didn't answer him.

 _A bouquet of flower. An anonymous sender. W-would my love life finally blossom?! Is this the 'secret admirer' thing they spoke about in novels?!_

"Sensei, you're blushing like a high school girl." His insolent words woke her up.

"I'll ignore that comment this once. You're dismissed!" She lifted the bouquet and locked the door.

Hachiman didn't want to think what is happening beyond the thin veil that shielded mortal eyes.

* * *

Hiratsuka-sensei was grading the essay written by _a particularly beautiful boy in second years_ , while occasionally sniffing the large bouquet,when her phone rang with a call from international number.

She frowned when she didn't recognize the number.

"Hiratsuka Shizuka here."

 _"Ah, Shizuka-chan!"_ A voice she dreaded since the first time she heard it assaulted her ears.

"Haruno, huh. Call me _sensei,_ you brat."

 _"Eeh, but you're young enough to pass as my elder sister..."_

"Flattery would get you nowhere. What do you want?" Haruno laughed from the other side of the Earth.

 _"Did you get the flower?"_

She had trouble deciding between vomiting and crushing her cell phone, but she wisely decided to do neither.

"So it was you." Haruno laughed even louder.

 _"I thought you prided yourself in your ability to recognize your students' handwriting."_

"I should've thrown it away." Hiratsuka-sensei sighed.

 _"Again, you should really try harder to recall whose handwriting is that. Besides..."_ Haruno audibly took a deep breath. _"I only knew who sent the flower because Hachiman told me himself."_

 _Click._ Haruno ended the phone call, leaving Hiratsuka-sensei with more question than she started with.

* * *

The flowers keep coming, once every week. Hachiman wasn't always the one who deliver it, although sometimes he still have to carry it through the bustling corridors during lunch times, much to his chagrin. The flowers adorned every corner of her apartment, but instead of relaxing her now their aroma only brought forth anxiety as the mystery of their sender surfaced behind her mind.

Hiratsuka-sensei's patience is running thin. And thus she did the next most logical thing: calling Yukinoshita Haruno.

 _"Shizuka-chan? My, how rare of you to call me. Have you finally succumbed to the forbidden temptation? I'm aware of my own allure, but as I thought those kinds of things are..."_

"I give up. Who is the one behind those flowers?"

 _"Hmm, I wonder if I should tell you..."_

"Enough with the game, Haruno. Look, I won't even get angry if you told me it's all from you. Just out with it already."

 _"I'm actually surprised that you hadn't found out yet. I mean, you practically met him everyday. Besides, he held my secret too, so I can't exactly go around and reveal his, now could I?"_

Hiratsuka-sensei frowned. "I met him everyday?"

 _"Well, I suppose you met a lot of people everyday. Ah, I have to go, see ya later, Shizu- I mean, Sensei!"_

 _Click._ Hiratsuka-sensei crashed herself on her bed, trying her hardest not to think about the international call fee.

 _Who the hell could keep Haruno's secret in check? And thinking about it, isn't it kinda scary that an unknown guy is stalking me?_

* * *

"-sensei, Hiratsuka-sensei?" Hachiman waved his hand in front of his daydreaming Japanese Literature teacher.

"Hikigaya. What do you want?" Hiratsuka-sensei slipped the card from one of the bouquet to her pocket.

"You told me to resubmit that essay yesterday, even though I did it perfectly this time."

"Well, sorry, it's an honest mistake on my part this time." Hachiman sighed audibly.

"You should really stop smoking. It's only my essay that got burned this time, what if you accidentally burned your entire house?"

"How thoughtful of you."

"I just felt sorry for that anonymous flower sender."

"About that..." Hiratsuka-sensei pulled out the card from her pocket, comparing it with the newly written essay in her hand.

 _Hmm, it's not his handwriting after all. Curses, now I'm back to square one._

She didn't realize Hachiman's tensed shoulder.

"Well, you're dismissed. I'll try not to set fire on your essay anymore."

"Or your apartment."

"Or my apartment." Hiratsuka-sensei agreed, closing the door behind her.

* * *

 _"Have you met him?"_

Sometimes Hiratsuka-sensei hoped her students could know when not to show off their intelligence. But right now, she just wished that her _particularly manipulative_ student could read a time zone table, and discover that midnight in Japan isn't probably the best time to call your full-time teacher.

"Like I said, I still don't know who the hell he is. Heck if not for you I won't even know that he's a male." Halfway around the Earth, Haruno sighed.

 _"Have you gone dull while I'm away, Shizuka-chan? How hard is it for someone to ask their friend or family to write it for them? You need to expand your search, back to writing board. Just because I told you he's a male doesn't mean you have to narrow your search to males in your school-in fact, there's no actual guarantee that they're still in your school."_

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Haruno laughed.

 _"I always enjoy every moment that you spent drowning in despair, Sensei. It might seem unfair to you, but there still unsettled grudges between us. See you later."_

For the nth time, Hiratsuka-sensei crashed onto her bed, questions swirling inside her mind.

* * *

It wasn't until after the tenth bouquet that she caught a glimpse of Komachi's handwriting in the pop quiz that should be graded by another teacher, but naturally dumped into her hands.

"Hikigaya-san." She called from the door to a certain classroom where the little sister of Hikigaya sibling was located.

"Hiratsuka-sensei? I don't recall you taught our class?" Komachi lightly sprinted to the door, proactively retrieving the stack of paper on Hiratsuka-sensei's hands.

"Ah, your teacher just asked me to give you these quiz results. Say, Hikigaya-san."

"What is it?"

 _"Have your brother asked you to write a card recently?"_ Hiratsuka-sensei whispered into Komachi's ears, sending a cold sensation down her neck.

"W-why do you ask, sensei?"

 _"Please answer truthfully; his fate resides on your hand."_ Hiratsuka-sensei could almost hear the thought racing through Komachi's mind.

 _W-what should I do, she sounds really angry, should I tell her the truth? B-but Onii-chan might get in danger, what should I do?!_

"I-I don't know what you're talking about, Hiratsuka-sensei..."

"I see." Hiratsuka-sensei straightened her back. "That's good enough answer for me." She left the trembling Komachi in the door to the classroom.

* * *

Somehow, Hachiman conveniently found his way to Hiratsuka-sensei's office that same afternoon. Hiratsuka-sensei would've marveled at the way destiny work, if not because his reason for being there isn't one that she found convenient.

"Let's see, a problem with English teacher this time..."

Feeling the unusual pressure in her words, Hachiman wisely decided not to meet her eyes.

 _I-is this the day she would finally kill me?_

"'Is this the day she would finally kill me?' is probably what went through your mind, right?"

"Y-yes, ma'am."

"Well, I _might_ overlook this particular mistake, if you answer my following questions truthfully."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. Now question number one." Hiratsuka-sensei pressed a button on her cell phone, letting out a dramatic sound effect. "Are you ready?"

"That's the question? Well, yeah, I'm ready."

"Onwards to question number two. Hikigaya-kun," she took a deep breath, and Hachiman's shoulder went stiff. "Would you mind if I call you 'Hachiman'? Y'know, so I don't mess up between you and Komachi-chan."

"Please don't. I only need one devilish onee-chan in my life."

 _Thinking about it, Haruno did call him 'Hachiman'. Since when did they become so close?_

"Third question, then. _Do you know who sent all those flowers?_ " His momentarily relaxed shoulders tensed again.

"I..." Hachiman paused, pondering his answer.

"Answer wisely, Hachiman." Hachiman desperately avoided his teacher's glare.

"...Yes, sensei, I know who the sender is."

An uncomfortable silence filled the room.

"...It's you, isn't it?" Hachiman dropped his head.

"No, this time it's not me." _Technically it's true, although I'm the one who ordered the flower and asked Komachi to write the card, Haruno is the one who paid for everything so..._

Hiratsuka-sensei scratched her head in exasperation.

"You're dismissed. Rewrite that English assignment. Return to me when you understand what ' _answer my question honestly_ ' means."

Hiratsuka-sensei almost slammed the door to his face.

* * *

A sigh could be heard reverberating inside an apartment room in downtown Chicago, coming out from the mouth of a beautiful woman in her early twenties.

"Have you met him?" The woman spoke to her phone.

 _"Yes, yes I have."_ The voice from her phone replied, anger radiated from every words even after filtered through hundreds of exchange switches between Chiba and Chicago. _"You should've told me."_

"Well, it's not my fault that you ignored the most obvious answer." A giggle escaped the beautiful mastermind's lips. "He even indirectly confessed to you back then at that bridge, remember?"

Clicking sound of a lighter could be heard from the phone. _"Are you happy now? Having humiliated my intelligence?"_

"No, Shizuka-chan. In fact, this is another thread snapping in our relationship." The voice on the phone gasped

 _"You're jealous."_

"I'll leave that to your imagination." _Click._

Clicking sound of a lighter could be heard, this time coming from the beautiful woman's slender hand. The fire licked around an unlit cigarette slipped between her moist lips, charring the cigarette's tip before leaving an amber glow. Smoke curled around the room as she removed the cigarette from her lips, holding it between her left index and middle fingers.

"I wonder why she enjoys this so much." Despite her complaint, she still inhaled the poisonous smoke one puff after another, letting its scent envelope her body.

* * *

Hachiman waited for her first thing in the morning. Still with his unhealthy posture and both his hand in his trousers' pocket, he leaned his back to the wall beside the door to his teacher's office.

"What are you doing there, Hachiman?"-

" _A certain onee-chan of mine_ told me to let the cat out of the bag, not that there are any bag in the first place." He sighed.

"Come in." She unlocked the room, entering it ahead of him.

For a moment, there was only silence between them, as they gauged each other's emotional state.

"The flowers." Hiratsuka-sensei carefully breached the silence. "They were yours."

"Yes." Hachiman curtly answered.

"Why?"

"I..." Hachiman hesitated, realizing too late that he had stepped into a landmine.

"It's to mock me, isn't it?" Hiratsuka-sensei's cold voice frightened him even more, as if each word carried a jolt of electricity down his spine.

"No, I..."

"I could tolerate your comments on my ages. If you don't like me punching you after your comments on my status at this age, then I'll stop. But this..." Hiratsuka-sensei gestured to the floral arrangements. "I thought you're above this, Hikigaya-kun. I thought you're better than this. Are you satisfied now? Seeing your high school teacher behave like a mid-schooler with a love letter? Letting me obtain hope just to crush it underfoot?"

"It's not like that!"

"I bet you're laughing behind me." She continued, her voice rising with each words. "I bet you laughed when you told Haruno about how I act like animal in heat, just because a random people sent me flowers. I bet you laughed at me when you saw me absentmindedly walked through the corridor everyday, thinking about who sent me those cursed flowers!"

Tears threatened to drop from the edges of their eyes.

"Just how low do you see me, Hikigaya-kun?" Hiratsuka-sensei can't hold her tears anymore, letting it streams down her cheek. Intermittent sobs interrupted her words. "Return to your class. You're dismissed."

"I... I'm sorry. I didn't know..."

"I don't need your apology. Return to your class, Hikigaya-kun." He clenched his fist, but no more words came out of his mouth.

Between them were only a glass table and empty ashtray, but their minds were further apart than the vast ocean.

"I'm sorry. Excuse me." He finally decided to stand up and left the room, leaving his crying homeroom teacher.

* * *

She is painfully aware of her inability to take others' feelings into account when she made her decisions.

Oftentimes, it's only when it's too late that she realized her fatal flaw. Mistakes had been made, hearts had been broken, and rifts had opened between her and the people she once held dear. Her heart was filled with rifts and wounds constantly overflowing with pain, countless mementos obtained from a thousand hearts that came and went, leaving shards inside her heart when they shattered along with hers.

This time, unfortunately, wasn't an exception.

"It always ended the same way." Hiratsuka Shizuka cried alone in the room filled with the scent of over a hundred flowers. "It's not even his fault. No, it's _never_ been their fault. I always thought that _this time_ would be different, _this time_ I'd finally end it all, falling for the same predetermined mistakes over and over again..."

She is painfully aware of her cowardice.

In attempt to avoid getting her heart broken, in attempt to divert fate, she had shattered the only person she knows to be able to understand her. She chose to hide herself, running away from the inevitable end that accompany all her previous attempt at building even remotely successful relationship.

"Love is a madness, a lie fabricated by people to hide the fact that sanity is only an illusion, that normalcy which everyone worshiped never existed in the first place. "

 **[1]**

She whispered to no one, an hour after everything has ended.

* * *

Three hours later, a timid knock woke her up.

 _Huh, did I fell asleep while crying?_

As the knocks got louder, she quickly brushed her disheveled hair with her fingers and opened the door.

"Yes, please wait for a second."

Only to meet the last person on Earth she wanted to meet, with the expression she never thought would ever be displayed on his face.

"What are you..." But he didn't let her finish her sentence.

As soon as the door swung open, a pair of arms found their way around her body, embracing her in a tight hug.

"Thank God you're okay..." Hachiman whispered to her ears, his arms still wrapped around her fragile body. **[2]**

"Wha-"

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, but I don't want it all to end just like that. I don't want to be just another name in your list of broken hearts, of incurable chasms carved with pain." He took a deep breath. "I don't want my love for you to be dismissed as a mistake."

"Love? Love you said? You don't know anything about love, not a single thing! And yet you dare proclaimed that you love me?!"

"Tell me, sensei, what I have to do? How I should beg for your forgiveness? I won't ask to stand on your side, I won't ask for your hearts, for it is impudent of me to even think about it, but at least tell me how to put smile back on your face, tell me what I should do that I could hear your laughter again, tell me..." he choked on his tears. "...tell me, how am I supposed to love you?"

Only then did he realize the muffled sobs coming from his teacher's face. The two of them stood together in each others' embrace, as bell chimes echoed through the bustling school.

* * *

Naturally, there would always be more questions than there would be answer. After all, humanity had learned how to ask questions far earlier before they're taught how and where to look for answer. As such this story ended here, with both old and new questions left unanswered, and answers slipped between the questions without assigning itself to each others.

* * *

 **[1] Credit to LyingHiki.**

 **[2] Strangely enough, it's easier for me to imagine him saying this in Japanese than in English, despite me not knowing how to speak Japanese. Either way, I'm aware how this is painfully OOC for him, so bear with me...**

 **This one is 'Shiki' fanfic, that is, ShizukaxHikki fanfiction.**

 **Writing this fic is frustrating, not necessarily because of its content, but also because I tried to pour all my heart into this story, only to get a painfully** _ **shallow**_ **result** _ **.**_ **I can't pour my feelings properly into words, solely because I don't know enough words and my inability to string these words to represent my feelings. I almost cried when I wrote them but I felt almost** _ **nothing**_ **when I read it again.**

 **Well that's just me rambling, you could ignore it.**

 **Critics and Reviews are always appreciated. riyangendut out.**


	3. Infinite Endgame

**So, I wrote some moar thing! This series of one-shots were supposed to be unrelated to each other, but I ended up making them loosely related to the original "** _ **Mist Requiem**_ **", with some facts shared between them, like how the second one shared the fact that Haruno was in America... Anyway! Enjoy this fanfiction.**

 **Back to original pairing, 8man x Haruno!**

* * *

I think of the word 'Impossible' as an overused and overrated word.

 _"Nothing is impossible."_ Said the overly optimistic frauds, hiding their cowardice behind nice words, telling blatant lies with overly sweet smile on their face.

 _"It's impossible."_ Said the father of two children when his eldest son asked him to come to his school, which later would be his default answer for all his son's inquiries.

 _"I'm sorry but as I thought it's still impossible."_ Said a certain overly self-conscious kouhai at Sobu High while dramatically bowing, everytime her senpai said anything remotely related to or could be misinterpreted as an expression of romance.

But it wasn't until now that I began to truly resent the word 'impossible.'

"It's impossible for you." Said a certain girl with long black hair and eyes as cold as the depth of the ocean, her pale complexion reflected the crimson evening sunlight. "The two of you would never reach the future you imagined."

I gritted my teeth. I'm used to be looked down at. I could tolerate everyone insulting me, isolating me, using me as scapegoat. Let the world hate me, dump their sins upon my shoulders, I'll bear them all if that's what the world needs from me. But I can't accept even _her_ to insult the only thing I cherished in my life.

"It's not for you to decide what future I could and couldn't achieve."

"Even so you can't have any future together with her. She doesn't deserve you, she would just betray you over and over again-"

" _Just like what she did to you?_ " The word came out all too easily, derailing Yukinoshita Yukino's speech, summoning silence into the room. The word hurt as much for me as it would for her, forcing me to turn my back towards her.

"Yes," she finally said. "Just like what she's doing to me right now."

I don't have to turn around to know she was crying.

* * *

A week uneventfully passed. I avoided meeting Yukinoshita Yukino and stopped coming to the Service Club activities, much to Yuigahama and Hiratsuka-sensei's chagrin. While I could just ignore Yuigahama, Hiratsuka-sensei proved to be harder to avoid, as she wasn't above abusing her position as a teacher to force me to talk.

"Do you know what your mistake was, Hikigaya?" Hiratsuka-sensei crossed her legs, her right hand holding her forehead as if her head could explode any moment.

"With all due respect, sensei, this time I don't think I've done any mistake."

"You got on a fight with Yukinoshita, don't you?" She raised her face, her beautiful eyes pierced deep into mine.

"Yes, but that's a problem between the two of us. You have nothing-"

"You're a terrible liar, you know." Hiratsuka-sensei let out a sigh. "You should never say anything that you yourself find hard to believe." For several minutes, the two of us sat in silence, fighting invisible battle through our eyes.

Which naturally ended with my defeat.

"Why don't you start with telling me what actually happened?"

"...yes." I took an exaggerated deep breath. "Due to unforeseen series of events, I'm currently dating the eldest daughter of Yukinoshita family."

Hiratsuka-sensei's eye twitched. "Go on."

"I hadn't planned to tell Yukinoshita just yet, but she somehow found out, and then..."

She clicked her tongue, and reached for her cigarette pack. "You playboy you." I frowned.

"You should stop smoking, sensei."

"And why is that?" She puffed a smoke out of her mouth.

"You can't marry anyone if you're dead." She sighed before taking another drag of her cigarette.

"If I stopped smoking, then what? Are you gonna marry me or something?"

"Depending on how this whole situation with the Yukinoshitas end, I can't rule out that possibility."

"Like I said, you should never say anything that you yourself can't believe. You're dismissed."

I guess even a heavy smoker could choke herself sometimes.

* * *

Hikigaya Hachiman has one fatal flaw: he doesn't know what to do on a date, especially with the high-class lady of the Yukinoshita family.

 _I mean, the only thing even remotely comparable to a date I ever went was that double date with Hayama, and even then I never played more than a shadow. How am I supposed to know how to appease Haruno?_

"Hachiman?" Haruno asked with a concerned tone "Are you okay?"

 _No, I'm not. I'm currently on a date with one of the most beautiful woman verging on divinity that I know, so how could I be fine?_

"You said that aloud, you know."

"Ah, sorry."

"Why would you be? That's a pretty high praise, coming from you." She smiled, one of those genuine smile that she rarely if ever show to anyone. I think my heart just skipped a full five second's worth of heartbeat.

"Now, where should we go?" Haruno folded her arms behind her back.

"Well, the standard would be lunch and movies, right? In which order would you like that be?"

"Hmm, then let's eat lunch first, shall we? I'll pay, so don't worry about it."

"Shouldn't _I_ be the one who pay, normally?" She laughed, and my heart skipped another beat.

"Eh, but that would be really boring... besides, I don't think either of us could be further than _normal_ couple, Hachiman. Now let's go!"

I don't know whether to be happy or sad about that statement even now.

The lunch was surprisingly normal. I don't know if she's being considerate towards anyone, but I'm grateful for her choices. It's not exactly a gentleman move, but I paid behind her back, using the classic excuse of going to the bathroom. She wasn't amused.

"I guess it's useless to argue about anything with you, isn't it, Hachiman? How boring..."

Naturally, I stayed silent. I might be inexperienced in this whole dating things, but I do know the basic of the basics, despite interpreting it in my own way.

* * *

We would've went to the theater next, if not for a certain Yukinoshita that we met not far from the dinner.

"Nee-san."

"Ah, Yukino-chan." We stopped walking as Haruno untangled her arms from mine.

"Hikigaya-kun."

"Ah, Yukinoshita." I raised my right hand, before retracting it just as quickly.

"Nee-san. Haven't you played this game enough?" Smile disappeared from Haruno's face.

"What do you mean with that, Yukino-chan?"

"Just how much more would you take from me? You've taken my home, my family, my past, my future, my school, my wishes, my hope, my purpose, to the point that I was never more than your shadow! And now you would take my first friend, no, the first person I fell in love with?! Tell me, Nee-san! How much more I should lost? How much more would you take from me? How many people would you take away from me until you're satisfied?" Tears dripped from Yukinoshita Yukino's face as her voice broken by intermittent sobs.

Contrary to her sister, Haruno's face was steel cold.

" _What made you think that I could be satisfied?_ " The younger of Yukinoshita sisters looked at her elder sister in shock. "You've never learnt anything, have you? I'll never stop. I'll keep taking _everything_ from you, until nothing remains. How conceited are you to even think that you could stop me? Listen carefully, Yukino-chan. Everything that I took from you were all mine to begin with. You never have _anything._ "

The three of us stood in silence for a few moments, before Haruno grabbed my arms. "Let's go, Hachiman."

And just like that, we left the shaken Yukinoshita Yukino.

* * *

"Don't you think you're too harsh on her?"

"I've told you, right? That I have to be a perfect villain in front of my sister."

"Well, that would mean when she manages to defeat you someday, you'll return everything to her, right?"

" _If_ she manages to defeat me. But yes, I do plan to return everything to her..." She stopped, before pushing her face millimeters in front of mine "...that'd include you, so try not to get too attached to me, okay?"

In complete violation of everything that defines 'Hikigaya Hachiman', I closed the distance between our lips.

"Then at least, let me have you for myself, even if it's only for this fleeting moment." I wrapped my arms around her shoulder.

 _If only there exist a world where both of them could be saved... If only there exist a future where I don't have to choose between the two of them..._

 _It turns out there really are impossible things in this world..._

* * *

 **Do you know what's frustrating? When you wrote a chapter and all of sudden that loose little USB cable failed you and the file became corrupted... *sigh* the draft for "Love, Time, and everything in between" just got pushed back from the edge of foreseeable future to the darker side of Oblivion...**

 **Credit to the second chapter of "There's Something About Yui" by thatguywhowrote that I used as an inspiration to write something about "Impossible" things.**

 **Critics and Reviews are always appreciated. riyangendut out.**


	4. Edge Cutters

**So, I wrote some moar thing! This time it's another Shizuka x Hachiman fanfic!**

 **But first, to answer Flash Falcon's review, I said previously that these one shots aren't really all chronologically connected. Like, the Ch.2 and Ch.3 could be looked at as diverging timelines from the first chapter's outcome, and it's possible that I'd write another ones that's fully independent of the first chapter, like this one would be.**

 **This one is pretty short, and might feel rushed... Well it** _ **was**_ **rushed...**

* * *

"I have a request." On that awfully normal afternoon, I took a seat across Yuigahama with the most serious face I could muster.

"I'm sorry Hikigaya-kun, but I'm not interested in having relationship right now." Faster than Yuigahama could open her mouth, Yukinoshita answered with her trademark cold eyes and even colder voice, causing my eyes to twitch.

"I hadn't even told you my request. More like, enough with that joke, Isshiki overused it to the point that it's not funny anymore."

"Oh, so it's fine when Isshiki-san used that joke? As expected, you do like younger girls."

"You clearly misinterpreted it! And it's intentional, isn't it?!"

"Get a room already, you two." Hiratsuka-sensei entered the room unannounced, gaining Yukinoshita's frown and Yuigahama's relieved sigh.

"Hiratsuka-sensei, knock."

"Maybe later." Hiratsuka-sensei waved her hand at Yukinoshita as she sat in my usual spot. "Please continue with your request, Hikigaya-kun."

"On a second thought, I'm probably more than capable of handling this problem myself. Now if you excuse me..." I stood up and left the room, closing the door that Hiratsuka-sensei had left open.

Good thing they can't hear my heartbeat.

* * *

"..I thought this kind of things only happens in anime." I cursed under my breath as I kicked the closed gym storage door.

It's not even two weeks later when I suddenly got locked in the gym storage room, along with the last person wanted to be locked with.

 _Actually, scratch that. I don't have anyone I wanted to be locked along with, but more than that I don't want anything to do with this person. I mean, if I have to be locked in a room,_ any _room, I'd prefer to be together with a_ girl _, you know? Then again I'd probably creep the girl out just by existing and ended up with attempted rape charges even though I got her out from the locked room..._

 _...Hiratsuka-sensei is probably right when she said that my mind is overly rotten._

"I can't get any reception..." the blonde-haired guy that sat beside me slipped his phone to his pocket."Well, it's not like we'll be trapped here forever. It's still lunchtime, after all, so someone bound to find us sooner or later."

 _Us? No, they would find_ you. _They probably wouldn't even notice that I'm here._

"Hey, Hikigaya-kun."

"...what is it?"

"Did something happen to you?"

"Not really, why'd you ask?"

"Well, you changed a lot this past week. You even did all your assignments correctly."

"What, shouldn't it be a good thing?"

"Let me be frank, Hikigaya-kun, _it disgusts me._ You might find it hypocritical, but that kind of blatant lie isn't one that I like to hear."

"Even if there's something wrong with me, I have no obligation whatsoever to tell you."

"Well then let me do this my way. I thought it's a problem with the Service club, but Yukinoshita-san said that you're coming as usual, save several times you left early. At first glance, there aren't anything wrong with it, unless you looked deeper at the times that you left early."

"And what is the common pattern, detective-kun?"

"Hiratsuka-sensei. That's the common pattern between your early leave from the Service club the last two weeks. It's also made sense that you worked on your assignments more seriously, as the first person the faculty would contact if you have a problem is Hiratsuka-sensei. Thus if you don't make any mistake in your assignment, the probability that you'd have to meet her outside of class diminished greatly."

"Congratulations on finishing your little game. Now shut up. You looked too deep into this." The sound of door unlocking averted our attention.

"Ah, there you are, Hayama-kun." As the red-haired girl talked to him, I slipped out through the door, gaining nasty look from Hayama.

 _Eh, it's not like I care about what he thought of me anyway..._

* * *

"Now, Hikigaya-kun, confess. Why have you been avoiding me for the last few weeks?" Hiratsuka-sensei pinned me to a wall outside the Service club room, her right hand planted firmly to the wall beside my face. Her eyes stabbed into mine while I desperately tried not to look at them.

 _Holy Crayfish, what with these reverse rom-com scenarios?! First a boy that's more beautiful than any girls, then locked in gym storage with a boy, and now getting pinned to a wall by elder woman?!_

Despite the cheesy outward appearance, this situation was actually really dangerous for me. This beautiful teacher of mine could very well crush my face with her free hand faster than I could spell my own name, so there aren't any room for mistake.

"I-I don't know what are you talking about, sensei."

"You should at least made it more subtle. Leaving everytime I enter the club room isn't exactly the strategy I expect from you."

"It's not that I don't want to meet you, but..."

"Look at my eyes, Hikigaya." I forced myself to look at her eyes, careful not to get myself swallowed by the immense beauty crystallized in her eyes.

What I found, however, were droplets of clear liquid.

"Sensei?"

"Ah," she frantically wiped her eyes with the edge of her lab coat "I'm sorry, there's something in my eyes." But the tears keep flowing from her eyes.

I instinctively wrapped my arms around her neck, letting her tears stain my uniform.

* * *

"It's strange." The sunlight had painted the sky and the scenery around me with beautiful mixture of crimson and orange when the woman whose head was buried in my chest finally began talking. "I cried a lot, you know. For someone who talked big all the time, I'm also ironically a crybaby. But this is the first time I cried without even knowing what am I crying over. Is it my loneliness? Is it because of sadness? Or is it a tears of happiness? I don't know. I don't understand. No matter how much I think about it, I can't understand my own feelings..."

I subconsciously tightened my arms.

"It's fine. Not understanding everything is fine." I took a deep breath "I can't understand my own feelings either. Why did I avoid you, why did my heart beat faster when I'm close to you, why is it so painful to see you cry... I never felt like this before. I guess I really have changed, sensei."

Silence enveloped us as I placed my hands on her shoulder and looked into her eyes.

I moved my hands around her cheek. She did the same.

 _Well, there really only one possible outcome, weren't there?_

* * *

 **I'm not gonna describe what happened afterward, I'll just let the world burn and watch it with popcorn in my hands (evil laugh)**

 **Critics and Reviews are always appreciated. riyangendut out.**


	5. Twist the Wound

**So, I wrote some moar thing! Y** **ou might interpret this chapter as the alternate reality version of the previous one, as with how chapter 2 and 3 was a different outcome of chapter one.**

 **If you hadn't realized, these chapters' tittles are purely arbitrary and don't always represent the story... "Edge Cutter" was a joke because it was rushed, and because it sounds cool. Mainly because I thought it sounds cool.**

 **Anyway! Idk what pairing is in this chapter, but enjoy your ride!**

* * *

"I have a request." On that awfully normal afternoon, I took a seat across Yuigahama with the most serious face I could muster.

"I'm sorry Hikigaya-kun, but I'm not interested in having relationship right now." Faster than Yuigahama could open her mouth, Yukinoshita answered with her trademark cold eyes and even colder voice, causing my eyes to twitch.

"I hadn't even told you my request. More like, enough with that joke, Isshiki overused it to the point that it's not funny anymore."

"Oh, so it's fine when Isshiki-san used that joke? As expected, you do like younger girls."

"You clearly misinterpreted it! And it's intentional, isn't it?! Ahem." I returned my posture to a proper one. "I have a woman that I love."

"'A woman.' Not a girl, but a woman?" Yukinoshita narrowed her eyes. **[1]**

"Uh, Yukinon, weren't those words meant the same thing?"

"Depending on the context, well, I suppose it doesn't matter. So, Hikigaya-kun, could you tell us who was this woman that you have fallen in love with?"

"About that..." I hesitated, my eyes darted from Yukinoshita's cold but expectant eyes and Yuigahama's enthusiastic but pained ones. "No, forget it, I'll handle it myself."

"Oh, are you backing down? I didn't know you're such a coward, Hikigaya-kun."

"Cowardice is a necessary trait for survival. Natural selection ensures that there would always be more coward than brave heroes."

"Let's make it a bet, then."

"...what kind of bet?"

"Yuigahama-san, would you join the bet?"

"Eh? I don't know, what kind of bet is it?"

"The winner would be the first person between the three of us to confess their love. The confession must be witnessed by at least two of us, including the one doing the confession."

"Then what would the winner get?"

"A wish, to be fulfilled by two remaining contestants."

"I'm in."

"I-if Hikki in, then I'm in too..."

"Then it's decided." Yukinoshita turned her eyes back to me. "Hikigaya-kun, I love you, please go out with me."

"Wha-"

"That's cheating, Yukinon!"

"Proceed to my wish. Hikigaya-kun, I wish for you to accept my confession."

"Yukinon..."

"I'm sorry, but I have someone I love. And it's not you. Thus it was impossible for me to fulfill your wish."

"Is that so. Then, Yuigahama-san. It's your turn."

"Eh, that's, uh, Hikki!"

"I'm sorry. I have someone I'm in love with."

"Then at least tell us who is that! You're always like that, keeping everything to yourself, keeping all the pain, never sharing your burden with anyone! I don't want that, I also want to know what's inside your mind, what do you like and dislike, what pains you and what makes you happy, everything!" Tears scattered from her eyes as she let all her feelings out. "I'm tired of never being able to understand you..."

"I... the person that I love is..." Both of my only friends' face contorted in pain. "...Hiratsuka-sensei."

* * *

It's been a week since both my club mates confessed to me. Coincidentally, it's also been a week since I stopped coming to the Service club activities. Slowly, I faded back to the invisible average, as a normal students surrounded by the mundane, behind the bright and noisy class, to the dark backstage of "youth" and "humanity" filled with fakes.

I never got myself to confess to Hiratsuka-sensei, and as I've severed our link through Service club, it became harder every single day to get my feelings out for her. Even looking at her face incites a feeling of guilt inside my heart, reminding me of what I've done to my two friends.

"You really are a coward, Hikigaya Hachiman." I halted my steps, Yukinoshita standing a meter behind me. "If you readily hurt us for your feelings, then at least hold on it until its very end. To be indecisive is disrespectful for the people you've hurt to get where you are right now."

"Then what do you want me to do?"

"Do what you must. Take responsibility of your own pain, of what you lost, of what you gained."

"Like I said, what do you want me to do?!" I shouted right onto her face "You know that we can't be together. You know I won't confess to her. You know I won't ever look her in the eyes again. You know that I would only run away again. You know that after that day I would never let myself fell in love ever again."

"Then you should understand what I wished for, Hikigaya-kun. What I wished the most, what I hoped for, from the beginning is always..."

"But..."

"But..."

Neither of us completed the sentences, leaving it hanging in the air, letting the heart twist and interpret it for our own interpretation.

 _Maybe you don't have to run away._

 _Maybe you could stand here by my side._

 _Maybe we could start over._

 _Maybe we could walk together._

 _Maybe, if only, could it ever be?_

Our heartbeat went with our step, distorted, shifted, paralel with each other.

* * *

 **[1] doesn't really make sense in English but in Japanese she would be comparing "joshi" and "onna"**

 **Critics and Reviews are always appreciated. riyangendut out.**


	6. Morpheus' Cross

**So, I wrote some moar thing! I bumped up the Rating for this story to 'T' because of the somewhat graphic content... but it's nothing amazing, really. I only did it to be safe.**

 **This chapter revolved around 'Dreams', the sleep kind, not the kind that you see in your future. Hence the title 'Morpheus', god of dream in Ancient Greek. There are times that we saw a dream so vivid and repetitively that we began to think about it as more than mere dream. I have one such dream too, back in my mid-school days,,,**

 **Ugh, I felt so old. Anyway! This is another Hiratsuka fanfic! Enjoy!**

* * *

The man observed the cross standing over the burning ruin. It was a wooden cross five meter tall, three meter wide, held together and decorated with bronze ornaments. Chained and nailed with twelve steel nails was a woman in her late thirties, clad in black vest and trousers along with a scorched lab coat. The women breathed heavily, her eyes closed and her face covered by soot. Her beautiful dark hair was swayed in the wind, shaded crimson by the surrounding flame.

The man raised the lance held in his right hand, pointing it right towards the crucified woman's heart.

"No hard feeling, Shizuka, it's your own wish after all." As the woman opened her eyes, the man thrusted the lance forward. Time slowed down as the woman's face contorted in mix of surprise and fear and confusion, the lance coming closer to her chest as she opened her eyes wider in recognition of the man that would soon end her life...

And then Hiratsuka Shizuka woke up.

* * *

"How frequent are these dream?" The man in black suit asked to Hiratsuka as he jotted down several notes.

"It started infrequently, maybe two or three times a week. But recently I dreamt about it everytime I took even short nap. I lost significant amount of sleep time because of it."

"And you sure it wasn't caused by stress?"

"No, I don't think so. My superiors was pretty understanding and diverted half of my workload to the rest of the faculty, so at least I know it's not work-related"

"Hmm, I could prescribe anti-depressant, but if the problem was deeper inside your psyche then there's nothing drugs could do... Say, Hiratsuka-san."

"What is it?"

"Please don't be offended. Are you perhaps have some insecurities? Regarding your status or your workplace?" Hiratsuka took a deep breath.

"It's... Well, I don't really like to talk about it, but I'm currently single. At my age it's pretty much given that it would give me some insecurities."

"Hmm, this issue is harder to fix... Shame that I already had a wife. If I'm still single I'd be more than happy to marry you myself."

"I'm flattered, but you don't have to go that far." Normal people wouldn't have noticed it, but a tinge of annoyance could be heard from Hiratsuka's voice. However, it didn't escape the sensitive ears of the psychiatrist.

"Ah, sorry, I shouldn't said that."

"No problem."

"Moreover, I'll prescribe you some sleeping pill and anti-depressant. If you still have problems with these dreams, you could call me in three days."

* * *

The same dream, the same burning ruins that she recognized as the remains of Sobu High School.

"No hard feeling, Shizuka, it's your own wish after all." The same sentence, the same face of a certain eleventh grade student, albeit older and tired. The exact same sequence of events followed as the lance in his right hand closed in to her chest.

And again, Hiratsuka Shizuka jolted awake from her sleep.

* * *

"Say, Hiratsuka-san, I wouldn't suggest it to most of my patients, but if you really bothered by these dreams, would you participate in an experiment?"

"Experiment? What kind of experiment?"

"For a drug. It's called Anmorphus, an experimental drug used to induce deep sleep and suppress dreams. Due to its nature, we cannot do animal testing beyond determining if it won't make you sleep forever, and I cannot guarantee that it won't behave differently on human subjects. But I will take all responsibility."

"I don't know, Kizuha-sensei, I'm not sure about this..."

"Well, it's not something you have to decide right now. I'll prescribe you sleep pill and anti-depressant, with shifted dosage. Give me a call within three days."

* * *

"I'll take the drug."

"Are you sure? We don't have enough data to confirm that it's safe for human yet, and we don't know if there would be strange side effect to the drug."

"With my current condition, I think the risk is worth the shot. I can't teach like this, the image from the dream, the cross, the fire, the chains, the nails... even when I'm awake I could feel pain in the exact place where the twelve nails dug into my body. I can't sleep, I look like I've aged fifteen years in just a week, my hairs are falling off my head..."

"You could die, or worse, never wake up from that dream."

"It's... it's a risk I'm willing to take."

"Then follow me." Kizuha stood up from his chair, leading Hiratsuka out from the office into his car. "It's a fifteen minute ride, and it'll take thirty minutes to administer and monitor your body response to the drug, is it fine?"

"Okay."

The two of them drove in silence to a university laboratory in the outskirt of Chiba prefecture, where a student that seems like very familiar with Kizuha led them to the testing laboratory.

"Anmorphus is really stable in previous tests, but there wasn't really a lot of test subject for such specific treatment. That's why every subjects provides very valuable data to us." The girl explained as they set up the various sensors. "You have signed all the required paperwork, yes?"

"I think so."

"Any last request?"

"Am I getting an experimental sleep pill or euthanasia?"

"Depending on your body response, it might as well be both... Sorry, that's in a bad taste. The first dose would be gradual intravenal injection diluted with glucose solution. The subsequent dose would be pills, three times a day. Please lie in the bed and make yourself comfortable." The girl attached the sensors and IV drip into Hiratsuka's arm, smiling.

"Ready?"

"As I'd ever be."

Hiratsuka remembered screaming.

* * *

If anything, the dream was more vivid than it ever been. Hiratsuka felt more than she saw an explosion, and then the entire school building crumbled, crushing hundreds of students and teachers under its ruins. She saw herself pinned below the rubble, miraculously unscathed.

A man in black robe entered the scene from nowhere, his hands efficiently removed the rubbles from Hiratsuka's body, dragging her towards the cross that appeared out of thin air.

The cross was ironically beautiful, its bronze ornaments gleamed under the sunlight, reflecting the light from surrounding fire. The man worked swiftly, securing Hiratsuka's body with steel chain before taking out the twelve nails, about fifteen centimeters each. Again, he swiftly hammered each nails to her body, but Hiratsuka merely twitched from the pain, her body incapable of more responses.

The man stepped back to observe his handiwork, the hammer in his hand replaced by a lance.

"Why?" Hiratsuka managed to let out a word from her dry mouth. "Why did you do this? Do you hate us that much? Do you hate _me_ that much?"

"You're so beautiful, Hiratsuka-sensei, no, Shizuka." The man stepped forward, showing no sign of recognizing Hiratsuka's word. His eyes no longer reminiscent of dead fish, it instead filled with despair of one that have seen and survived a thousand battlefield, a pair of tired eyes, longing for rest. Slowly, he caressed Hiratsuka's cheek with his rough hand. "You have been and will always be my greatest what if... what if I had told you back then how I really feel? What if I return to you like you told me to? What if I had been honest with my feelings instead of running away?"

A rush of memories filled Hiratsuka's mind, filled with pain and loss and dirt.

"I don't want all these 'what if's, Shizuka. I don't want to kill my heart with my own hands. I don't want to stop being human. And more than anything, I don't want our story to end like this." He removed his hand from Hiratsuka's face. "So please, tell me what to do, Sensei, just like what you did back then."

Tears fell from her eyes as the spear once again pierced through her chest, sending her back to the real world.

* * *

"Hiratsuka-san?"

"I'm awake..." Hiratsuka groaned as she opened her eyes. "Where am I... oh, right, the experiment."

"Well, you're awake. At least now we know we hadn't killed you."

"How long have I been out?"

"A little over an hour. You were screaming halfway through, so the drug was a failure, after all. Sorry to have you went through all this, and thank you very much."

"No problem. I... I have to go." Hiratsuka glanced to the clock, showing a little over 2 PM. "It's a fifteen minutes drive, huh. Kizuha-san, could you give me a lift to my school?"

"I'd suggest you take more rest, Hiratsuka-san. The drug clearly put a strain to your body..."

"I have to do this now!" Hiratsuka hurriedly sat up from the bed, but the sensors went in her way.

"Calm down, please, at least let me unhook the IV and the sensors, okay?"

"O-okay..." she laid herself back to the bed while Kizuha and his student removed the various cables and tubes from her body.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Hiratsuka Shizuka was running through the school, heading towards a certain room.

 _Please, let me reach him!_

The person in question was her student, the one and only Hikigaya Hachiman, was standing outside the clubroom for the Service club with a smile in his face.

"I've been waiting for you, Shizuka."

* * *

 **Nyahaha, another cliffhanger. The world is burning nice and warm~**

 **I wrote this in paralel to the previous chapter, which explain the short gap. It's not something you could expect me to do frequently, okay?**

 **Critics and Reviews are always appreciated. riyangendut out.**


	7. The Goddess' Descent

**Fuahh...it's been so long since my last update, sorry, I tried to do too much things at once and ended up finishing none.**

 **Also, it's another Shiki fic. Special for Betrayed Dreams, I guess :p this should've been completed weeks ago if only I didn't lose the file... meh that's just excuses. Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

If there's something I know about Yukinoshita family, it's that they attract great fortune and misfortune alike. And the older they get, the smarter and faster they could put up their mask, concealing the bitter pain they accumulated along with the sweetness that outsiders perceived. I won't claim that I understand them, for I too am an outsider. But the glimpse of it that slipped out from the Yukinoshita sisters' words was enough for me to at least take a peek to the faces they hid behind their mask, of the cries they never let anyone see, of the grimace they forcefully locked away with false smiles.

Then again, maybe it was precisely why they are so dangerous. Having no qualms against using both their fortune and misfortune to their advantage, the Yukinoshitas forged their path towards each of their dreams and objectives, before ending at the same conclusion each and every time.

That aside, I certainly never expected the matriarch of the Yukinoshita family to appear in front of me in a cafe where I met her eldest daughter not long earlier.

 _O god of love comedy, what sin hath thy humble servant committed that warrant thy wrath?_

But even the god of love comedy wants nothing from this Yukinoshita.

"Thank you for taking care of my daughters, Hikigaya-kun, I've heard nothing but good things about you."

"I'm flattered, ma'am."

"But on other hand such overtly exemplary reports breeds suspicion within my mind. Tell me, Hikigaya-kun, what do you think the most important possession of a Yukinoshita is?"

What is the most important for Yukinoshita? I don't know. I know frustratingly little of those around me, their past, their hope, their wish, their hatred, their pain, I never knew any of them. And I never cared to know either; as long as they're walking on my side, it's more than what I could ask for.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, I have no idea."

"It's their _values,_ Hikigaya-kun. Their ability to discern their goals and weighs all option based on it. A Yukinoshita must never let anyone save themselves influence their values." She squinted. "And you somehow accomplished just that, skewing the values of my daughters to one beneficial to yours."

"Pardon me, ma'am, but I'm afraid-"

"Oh, playing dumb, are we? Do you seriously think that I won't notice something as blatant as my daughter's behavior?"

"No, ma'am, it's just that my ability to observe such things is far cry from yours-"

"You are severely mistaken if you think such simple flattery would affect me. My values are far harder to distort than that of my daughter's." I averted my eyes from her suffocating gaze.

"I'm deeply sorry for underestimating you, ma'am." I forcibly suppressed my instinct to run away. "Despite what it might looks like, I have no slightest intention to insult you."

"Your very existence is an insult for me, Hikigaya-kun." There are no way to prepare for her acidic words. I stared dumbfounded at her face, still displaying cold hard poker face. "I see that there are no point in playing a game of subtlety with the likes of you. Your ability to change my children's values is an interesting one, but at the same time a dangerous one to my plan. I won't allow you to change the arrangement of my board." The goddess stood up from her seat.

"Were you satisfied with merely playing with fire, I might be able to ignore you, but right now you might as well dousing a match in gasoline."

I could only stare at her receding back as she walked towards her limousine.

I've made an enemy I'd never hope to defeat. At least Yukinoshita Haruno is still a human. But this Yukinoshita woman has stopped being human long time ago. She will do anything it takes to ensure there aren't even the slightest chance for her plan to fail. I have no chance to challenge her, not even if I spend my whole life gathering allies and powers. She would simply swallow me whole and won't even spare another thought about it.

* * *

I never thought that the day would come that I voluntarily knocked into the dreaded temple dedicated to Holy Priestess Hiratsuka herself. _Actually, that's not a bad nickname. She should convert to be a Priestess of Vesta or something, then at least she would have reason for her prolonged solitude._

 _Which begs the question, was she even virgin?_ I shook my head in silence. _Why am I even thinking about that? She clearly wasn't, right? Argh, now I'm curious._

"When are you going to start talking? I don't have all the time in the world, you know?" Exasperated expression plastered over her beautiful face. _Well, I just deprived her of her lunch time, after all._

"Ah, yes, I mean, are you, no-" Sighing, Hiratsuka-sensei suddenly shoved her cigarette pack to my face.

"Take one." She said flatly.

"But-"

"Just take it, geez." I reluctantly took a cigarette from the package, putting it between my lips. "Now suck on it slowly, like sucking a straw." She lit the cigarette as I took a drag from it, its tip glowing amber, smoke filing my lung. I coughed, pulling the cigarette away from my face.

"Slowly, you idiot. Try again."

"I don't think it's a good idea..." She simply smiled.

"Try again." I tentatively took a slower drag from the cigarette, smoke once again filling my lungs. _Why would anyone do this voluntarily is beyond me._

"Good, now are you going to talk or not?" She took the cigarette from my hands, taking a drag from it herself.

"Sensei, isn't that indirect kiss?" _Idiot, why did I said that?!_

"So what? It's just you." She forced the cigarette back to me, puffing the smoke from her lips. I became overly conscious of her slightly parting moist lips, a thin lipstick concealed the darker hue courtesy of years of smoking.

I shrugged. _Might as well_.

"So, why are you here?" I returned the cigarette to her hand.

"I talked to Yukinoshita's mother yesterday." Puffing a waft of smoke, she handed the cigarette back to me.

"And then? Did you accidentally enlisted her into your harem?" I took another drag before answering.

"No, I didn't, and what harem are you talking about?" The cycle continued. She tapped the cigarette to the ashtray, ashes dropping from its ember tip.

"Forget it then."

"The only thing I accidentally did was enlisting myself to the list of person she hated the most in the world."

Silence permeated the room for several minutes as we continued the cycle to shorten the cigarette.

"She wanted you to get away from her daughter." She finally spoke when the cigarette became too short.

"...yeah, she talked about their values as Yukinoshita or something." She looked straight at my eyes after she extinguished the cigarette.

"Well, they're a bunch of weirdoes after all." She sighed. "In that case you better really get away from her daughters. Hmm, Yukino won't be happy, but I guess taking a break from the club would be the best course of action."

 _Calling the family of a student as weirdoes isn't really ideal teacher behavior. Then again, neither is sharing a cigarette with a student._

"You think so? Well, I have no qualms against it."

"I'll talk to Yukino about that. Now get out before someone found out what I just taught you."

 _Oh? That kinda sounds erotic._

I simply shrugged, before standing up and heading towards the door.

"Pardon for the intrusion." With a slight nod from her, I left the room.

* * *

"Yuigahama." I called out for the hyperactive girl in the class, gaining nasty looks from the people in her circle.

"Hikki? What is it?"

"Yeah, I was thinking to take a break from the club."

"Eh?! Why?"

"Hiratsuka-sensei told me to, it's a bit of personal problem, to be honest." _I can't exactly tell her about my meeting with Yukinoshita's mother._ "So, yeah, you could go without me."

"Is that so? The room would be different without Hikki..." _What's with that upturned look? I won't fall in love with you with only that much you know? I'm not that desperate..._

 _..Well, at least I like to think that I'm not._

"Well, that's it, I guess. Isn't that good? You could spend more time with your beloved Yukinoshi-"

"I told you it's not like that! Geez! Pervert! Hachiman!"

"Ah, you just called my first name." Her already red face turned even deeper shades of crimson.

"Idiot!"

* * *

"Sensei, I have a question." That same afternoon, I somehow found myself sitting in front of the same beautiful teacher of mine, who was shifting through a stack of paper.

"I prefer silver rings than gold ones." She answered without missing a beat, her hand still moving through the papers and marker.

"Not that. What's the point of me leaving the club if I still have to stay here afterschool?"

"Well it's not like you have better things to do right? I'm not as young as Yuigahama or Yukino, but I'm confident in my physical appearance."

"No offence, sensei, but I would rather spend my extra time leveling my mobile game." _Now that I think about it new characters should be introduced today, argh, I wanna go home!_

"I see, so our relationship is less important than a game, huh..." _What's with that wistful voice?!_

"Well it's not like we have much of one..."

"Is that so? You really didn't remember? That time when you held my hands, pledging our love to the infinite expanse of flowers atop that hill, sealing our vow with a sacred kiss..."

"The scariest thing is that your fingers hadn't even slowed down. As expected from a Japanese literature teacher, did you made all those lines on the fly? More like, if such kind of lovey-dovey development had happened in my past, I won't be half as rotten as I am right now."

"Hmm, then why don't we make it your future?" Her fingers paused, her beautiful eyes stabbing into mine "If you want, I could spare a day or two in Hokkaido with you this weekend, how does that sound?"

Faced with the obvious trick question, I took a deep breath to give her the only logical answer.

"I'm sorry sensei but as I thought as a person who had difficulties conforming to social bounds it is impossible for me to confront it head on, I'm sorry."

Silence.

"Who are you, Isshiki Iroha?" Hiratsuka-sensei's lips formed a frown as she resumed her works "Here I am offering you a holiday with no strings attached for once, and you became a masive jerk in response."

"I'm sorry..."

"Well, forget it. Why don't you go home? I'm going to stay here a bit longer, and I can't exactly ask you to help me grade these assignment."

"I'm sorry." I awkwardly stood up, picking my bag before making my way to the door.

"Oh wait," pausing her fingers once again, Hiratsuka-sensei took out a golden invitation letter from her desk. "This is yours, by the way. Why would she invite you after telling you to stay away from her daughters, I have no idea, but then again I never have any idea on how her mind works."

I took the letter, examining it in my hand.

 _Invitation letter for a dinner party, huh. And I have to bring a date on top of that—sigh, it's a pain. Maybe it's better if I don't come..._

"I got one too, by the way, and I know you don't have anyone to come with you, so-"

"You can't seriously-"

"Of course I'm serious." I simply sighed.

"You can't just use me whenever it's convenient for you."

"Oh give me a break! You know I don't have anyone to come with either, and not coming is simply not an option for me!"

 _This is going to be bothersome…_

* * *

 _ **To be continued.**_

 **I just realized that for a smoker, I have surprisingly small amount of vocabulary dedicated to the act of smoking.** _ ***shrugs***_ **well it's not like I'm going to have a heated debate in English about detailed description of smoking or something, so I'm content with that. Smoking is dirty and unhealthy habit, no amount of linguistic eloquence could change that.**

 **Critics and Reviews are always appreciated. riyangendut out.**


	8. High Priestess' Ascension

**Author doesn't own Oregairu, or else it won't even get to third volume rn.**

 **I actually finished writing this chapter before the previous one lol, but I lose the initial draft so I'm left to rewrite it while maintaining continuity with this one. That joint smoking scene wasn't exist in the previous iteration. I'll leave Yukinoshita mother unnamed. This chapter is far shorter than the previous, so don't get your hope too high :/**

 **:/ hmm, the sixth chapter is the one with most discontinuity between these chapters, right Flash Falcon?**

* * *

Both of the Yukinoshita sisters were visibly restraining themselves not to laugh, but the younger seems to be more successful than her elder sister.

"Seriously, who the hell brings their teacher to a gala?" I grimaced at the elder Yukinoshita's remarks.

"I just did. Now can I leave already?"

 _It's not like I wanted to, okay?! The only choice from my phone's contact book is Isshiki, and she would only make me her target practice for rejection scene, so there's no point to even try! I'm practically left with no choice at all!_

"No, no of course you can't. I found something from you that's not boring for once, I want to savor every seconds of this moment."

I simply sighed as Hiratsuka-sensei pulled me away from the laughing girls.

"Don't mind them. Remember why you're here in the first place."

"I want to think about it even less than I want to think about the Yukinoshita sisters..."

"Now, now, Hikigaya. Let's face the final boss head on. You have a goddess on your side right now, after all."

"That's a quite boastful claim, sensei. Have your old age eroded your shame?"

Despite my snarky remarks, the woman that currently tangled her arms around mine was really comparable to a goddess, what with her white sleeveless dress wrapping her perfect figure, gracefully outlining her feminine charms and hugging her shoulders while still giving her the much-needed mobility. Her natural color make-up emphasized her already beautiful face even further, giving her beautiful eyes an almost divine glow. A simple silver necklace adorned her chest, with matching bracelet in her right wrist and equally simplistic pair of earrings completed the image of divine empress.

 _Oh no, at this rate I might actually fell in love with her! Komachi, please lend me your strength!_

"Do you want me to dissect your heart in front of the class, Hikigaya? I could even give you the choice between figurative or literal meaning of 'heart'."

"Men who prefers delinquents as their wives only exist in movies, so getting into a jail would only diminish your chance of marriage even further."

"The fact that you're more concerned about my chance of marriage than your own life impressed me."

"Have you only realized it, sensei? I'm always rooting for you." _As long as you could divert that energy you specially stored to punch me, that is._

I want to blame the lighting for her blushing face.

* * *

"I never knew that you have such, unique, taste in women, Hikigaya-kun." It's surprisingly refreshing to see the matriarch of the Yukinoshita family actually smiling. "Although I suppose I don't know much about you at all."

"I would appreciate if you could cut into the chase, ma'am."

"Did you skip lunch so you could eat here?" I inadvertently averted my eyes, gaining an elbow from Hiratsuka-sensei.

"Are you a kid?!"

"I can't help it, okay?!" the Yukinoshita woman smiled again at our exchange.

"Should I leave you two to finish your conversation?"

"Ah, excuse our manner, Yukinoshita-san."

"It is okay, the two of you are guest, after all." The woman gestured for us to sit, before taking a sip of her tea. "At least I wouldn't have to worry about my daughters if you two really share such relationship. Have the situations been different, I would have given the two of you my full blessings."

"But I suppose my marital status isn't the subjects of tonight's invitation?"

"I would love to talk about that for another time, but yes, this time I'm not inviting Hikigaya-kun for that matter. I suppose the two of you are aware of my plans regarding my youngest daughter?"

"Which plan?" Suddenly, the air-conditioned room felt really suffocating.

"The one that involves the heir of the Hayama family, of course."

"Ah, of course." _Actually, it's all news for me. I know of course that they were childhood friends or something, but to think her mother had the nerve to pair them... Strike that. The Yukinoshita matriarch has the nerve, and the resources, to do just about anything._

"I don't really have that much of a plan with Yukino, after all. It wasn't much of a surprise that you could see the ones that are closest to you."

"I'm against that plan, but I suppose you knew about this already."

"Yes, and I won't take your opinion of the matter into consideration."

"Then why talk to me about it?" Hiratsuka-sensei's elbow hit me once more. _Whoops. Meh. I don't really care._

"Among all the plans that I have for my daughters, there is one big hole in my plans regarding my eldest daughter. I would never approve of your relationship with Yukino, no matter what kind of relationship it might be, but do tell me, Hikigaya-kun. How does _Hikigaya Haruno_ sounds for you?"

Suddenly I don't feel hungry anymore.

"Pardon me?"

"You heard me right, Hikigaya-kun. The hole in my plans is the suitable groom for my eldest daughter, who conveniently has neither the will nor the time to find one. I offered you a way, a method to join our family-"

"I'm sorry for interrupting, ma'am." As expected from Hiratsuka-sensei, she took over the conversation while I was struck dumbfounded by the outrageous proposal. "I believe that it is an unwise decision in the long run for Hikigaya-kun to marry Haruno."

"It is within my margin of error, and I believe it would be easier for my eldest daughter to have someone who is from normal family, instead of someone of equal or larger power than her. Besides, I believe that this matters concerns only the personal life of both my daughters and Hikigaya-kun here, and as such this falls outside your jurisdiction as their teacher."

"As their teacher, that is." My eyes opened even wider, realizing what kind of messed up destination this conversation was heading into. "But as Hikigaya-kun's lover, I believe I have the right to object."

 _Are you crazy?_ I stared right into her eyes.

 _Play with it. It's your only way out._

 _At least tell me beforehand!_

"I see. Indeed, it is very unfortunate that Hikigaya-kun has chosen someone by his side." If it's possible for her glance to be even sharper, it would certainly be right now. _She probably dissected me and used my body to teach mid-schooler human anatomy inside her mind_. "Although I see certain disagreement upon that fact between the two of you."

"Well both of us agreed not to disclose this fact to general public due to the obvious moral hazard, but the current predicament necessitates me to protect my throne, so to speak." As expected of Japanese literature teacher, she said all those bald-faced lies without even blinking.

"I see." If her voice was as cold as blizzard previously, right now the Yukinoshita matriarch's voice brought forth firestorm, suffocating me in the room previously filled with green tea scent. "I believe this conversation is over." She stood up, leaving the two of us with the untouched cups of tea.

* * *

The beautiful teacher of mine covered her face with her hands while hunching her back, her face blushing furiously as we left the venue.

"I can't believe I just pretended to be your girlfriend. Why did I even do that? I should've let you got married off with Haruno..."

"And here I am thinking that I was the only one who thought that was crazy."

We sighed in unison, before laughing out loud, gaining the attention of the passer-by.

"So, about that hill of flowers in Hokkaido."

"What, are you taking back your words after all? Sorry, that was one-time offer."

"Does it really exist?"

"I've seen it with my own eyes. Of course it exists."

"How beautiful is it in the scale of one to Hiratsuka?"

"What kind of scale is that even-oh, I see what you did there." Hiratsuka-sensei smiled. "No. Not even if you praise me."

"Then-"

"No more of your sickeningly sweet words, womanizer! Off we go! To conquer the night!"

And just like that, Hiratsuka-sensei dragged me to her car, cleaving through the cold night wind.

 _Maybe gazing at her smile wasn't that bad after all..._

* * *

 **The end. For this particular chapter anyway.**

 **Critics and Reviews are always appreciated. riyangendut out.**


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